Moanalua baseball team outlasts Pearl City in 10

Kyler Fernandez enjoys starting things off, but finishing a baseball game is pretty cool, too.

Fernandez, Moanalua’s leadoff hitter, drilled a 3-0 pitch to the fence in left field and Moanalua beat Pearl City 5-4 in 10 innings in the first round of the Wally Yonamine Foundation State Baseball Championships at Hans L’Orange Park on Wednesday.

Fernandez drove in Noah Medlock, who started the inning with a single to left field, went to second on a sacrifice by Jackson Hirai and moved to third on a balk.

“I never swing 3-0 or 3-1, but a situation this big my coaches trusted me and my teammates so I started to trust in myself,” Fernandez said. “That’s my job to get on base, but it worked. Earlier in the game I wasn’t doing so well but I didn’t let that affect me because my teammates backed me up.”

He grounded into a double play to kill a rally in the eighth inning but worked a 3-0 count against Pearl City slinger Naden Nihipali. His coach, Todd Takabuki, gave him the green light and he ended the proceedings with his drive.

“I made him swing,” Takabuki said. “Just be in the moment and understand that you are here and not make it too big. It’s a gutsy call but at that time we weren’t hitting to our standards so just take a chance.”

Kallen Kameoka started on the mound for Na Menehune and was staked to a 3-0 lead before giving the runs back on his way to 112 pitches.

Moanalua scrapped for two runs in the first thanks to a single by Peyton Kodama and a triple by Dustyn Hashimoto and added another on a sacrifice fly in the third by AJ Withy-Allen.

The Chargers stormed back with two runs in the fourth with four straight hits and added the tying run in the bottom of the seventh on a gutsy squeeze by Naden Nihipali.

Kodama collected three hits for Na Menehune while Tytan Takahashi and Choen Adaro led Pearl City with two. Kodama earned the victory with one run over the final 41⁄3 innings and Nihipali took the loss.

Na Menehune play top seed and No. 1-ranked Waiakea at 7 p.m. today, hoping they have something left after Wednesday’s marathon.

“We always have something left,” Fernandez said. “We have been down so much this season, blown leads and everything, but no matter what we are going to scrap. We are a pretty scrappy team.”

Hawaii Prep World

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